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Friday, November 22, 2013

CID Speaker Series: The effects of UAE construction jobs on Indians and their families

What are the effects of temporary labor in Gulf states on
workers from South Asia and their families? It is insufficient to
estimate these effects by comparing households with and without
migrants, because those households can differ in countless other
ways. In his research, Clemens measures the effects of migrant
work in the United Arab Emirates on workers from India and their
families, using a natural experiment. The 2008 crisis in the UAE
construction sector resulted in large changes in the ability of
Indian households to access UAE jobs, independently of those
households' individual characteristics.
Clemens has exceptionally rich data on these workers: a
purpose-built survey of Indian households, individually matched to
thousands of applicants to UAE jobs and administrative records on
workers in the UAE.